Forgotten no more: Kasturba Gandhi, the iron-willed partner who matched Mahatma step for step in shaking the British Empire. History books may typecast her as Gandhi’s shadow, but dig deeper, and you’ll find a leader who terrified colonial rulers as much as her husband. Hailing from Porbandar on April 11, 1869, Kasturba grew up in an era scorning girls’ schooling, married off at 13 to a domineering young Mohandas.
Their home was the real laboratory of satyagraha. Mohandas imposed strict rules—no outings without permission—but Kasturba’s serene temple visits, defying him quietly yet firmly, taught him the essence of ahimsa. ‘Her steadfast resistance made me realize I wasn’t born to rule her,’ Gandhi reflected.
South Africa in 1897 ignited her activism. Witnessing Indian subjugation, she plunged into action. Battling the 1904 plague, she entered plague zones to educate and care for the afflicted. Running the Phoenix Settlement solo during Gandhi’s incarceration, she mirrored his simple jail fare. Leading satyagrahis across Transvaal in 1913 despite illness, she faced imprisonment head-on.
India’s soil amplified her role post-1914. As ‘Ba’ in the ashrams, she counseled leaders and shielded activists. In Champaran 1917, her women’s outreach complemented Gandhi’s farmer agitation. With Gandhi jailed for years, Kasturba barnstormed India, sustaining the movement. Her 1923 denunciation of Borsad atrocities sparked national outrage.
Front and center in Dandi, she rallied women and shattered salt laws personally, courted arrest. Rajkot saw the British panic: solitary confinement for a septuagenarian, whom they officially deemed Gandhi’s equal in threat level by 1933. Her hunger strike in jail bent the administration.
Kasturba passed on February 22, 1944, leaving a blueprint of resilience. From Porbandar obscurity to national ‘Ba,’ her story redefines partnership in the freedom fight, proving she was no mere appendage but a force unto herself.